Crescent Chapter 4
by originella
Summary: Sophie knows that she must be the strongest vampire in the house, and the newborn quickly challenges Emmett to an arm wrestling match. Things get slightly out of hand after she wins and Maddie awakens, however...


After ascertaining and listening to Carlisle's say-so on whether or not Alice and Rosalie will prove competent at watching over Maddie, I venture out of the Cullen house with Carlisle, Esme, Edward, Bella, Emmett, and Jasper. I know full well what is expected of me, yet I could not escape this nervousness that threatened to creep out and scare me utterly. We crossed above the lake, and I was taken aback when they all of them jumped, and soared—as if flying—in the air.

I gasped, but hastily was struck with the desire to know if I'd be able to do something that spectacular. I kicked off from the ground, thanking god that I'd changed into sensible sneakers, jeans, and a t-shirt before setting out. I was then flying. I saw each individual leaf, pine needle, speck of sunlight that crept through the clouds, and so much more as wonderment filled me up then. A laugh escaped me then as I landed and found myself running so fast that I soon began to overtake all of the Cullen's and, with reckless abandon, ran past them all.

I see a tree in front of me then and hastily climb up it, hand over hand, my fingers digging into the bark. I push myself farther and farther up its trunk, savoring every moment of my agility and strength. Finally, when I reach the top, I am so tempted to proclaim myself the queen of the world, but don't want to sound cocky, so I keep my mouth shut. I look all around me, taking in the forests' natural beauty, when I smell it.

It seems like nothing, at first, until I begin to feel slight tremors all over my body. Then there is a growling sound from far off, and I know what I have to do. The Cullen's are circled around the tree, watching my every move, when suddenly I throw myself below and charge in the direction of the smell and of the noise.

If I still had a beating heart, it would have been beating in my ears in a moment of anticipation as I charged toward the guttural sounds that so attracted me. I run through the brush, then slow down a bit, as I sense that this particular bear is resting or something. Then, a mighty roar can be heard, and I poke my head through a bush, to see this animal following something, or someone.

Knowing that this could perhaps be my only chance, I burst through the foliage and jump right onto the bears' back. It rears in protest, but I am gripping tightly to its jet-black fur for safety, and for nourishment purposes, I can assure you. I hook my legs around the creatures' neck before swinging downward and locking my teeth onto its throat.

Relief is the next sensation that I feel as the mighty bear begins to collapse on top of me. His knees begin to grow weak as I drain him, but all I care about is easing this ever-constant burn that threatens to break through the skin of my throat. The burning sensation isn't gone by the time the bear is, but it is significantly dwindled down.

I throw the creature aside and manage to get to my feet gracefully as the rest of my new family comes calmly to my side. They all smile, Emmett even winks at me, as they admire the size of my kill. They all say something wonderful in praise, and Bella reminds me that she only took down a mountain lion on her first try. To get a bear, according to Emmett, Edward, and Jasper, means that I am truly a Cullen indeed.

I smile and thank them for their kind words, then insist that we return to the house to see how Maddie is doing. We run through the green mist of plants, trees, and grasses before we make the jump over the shimmering blue lake and return to the house. I jump up onto the balcony leading into Carlisle's make-shift hospital room and open the door just as fast. I see Alice and Rosalie talking amongst themselves, and I can see as soon as I come into the room that there is no change with Maddie.

Carlisle says that he will keep an eye on her. Bella gives me a smile of complete understanding before putting her arm around my shoulder and offering to allow me to meet Renesmee. I accept the offer and we walk downstairs, where Renesmee and Jacob are sitting on the couch. Jacob looks just as I predicted, and I immediately wrinkle my nose at his god awful wet dog smell. Renesmee resembles a sixteen-year-old version of Edward and Bella, and stands up as soon as we come in.

"Mom? Dad?" she says, hugging them both respectively before turning to look at me. she gives me a smile and reaches out her hand towards my face, and I suddenly feel at ease.

I give her a smile and incline my head as she rests her palm upon my cheek gingerly. I see fuzzy images of Rosalie screaming something, and then running towards it. She is in the forest, and everyone is following her, obviously confused about something. Then, Rosalie is picking up someone, a girl—a human girl—who has her throat ripped up and bleeding really badly, and Rosalie keep screaming for Carlisle to do something.

Then Rosalie is running back towards the house, and setting the girl upon a pallet in Carlisle's workroom. Jasper is yelling something at Emmett, and they run back into the forest and Carlisle leans down and proceeds to bit the girl, who appears to be bleeding to death. He raises his head, blood covering his pale lips as Renesmee stands in the doorway, confused, and Bella hastily takes her away from the gruesome scene—

"Renesmee!" Edward cries then, grabbing her by the arm as her hand falls away from my cheek. "That's enough."

"It's fine," I say, lowering my eyes. "Thank you, Renesmee." "What was it?" asks Bella, giving Edward a stern look. "Honey, what was it that you showed Sophie?" Bella's daughter keeps her eyes lowered, away from us all, prompting Bella to cross over towards her. "Remember, Nessie, plus que ma propre vie. Now please, tell us."

Renesmee sighs and shakes her head. "Just what I saw…on the day that Sophie and Maddie first came here…"

Bella sighs. "Sweetheart, I understand, but perhaps it wasn't the right time to show Sophie all of that."

"Renesmee, do you want to see Sophie's gift?" Rosalie asks, giving Bella a quick smile in order to change the subject.

"You have a gift?" Renesmee asks.

I nod. "Yes." I look at Jacob, who appears reserved at my appearance, and I narrow my eyes at him. I see that he is wearing black boxers; upon further examination, I see that he has _I love Nessie_ stitched onto one of the side pockets, which I find amusing. "Interesting insignia on your underpants, wolfie boy," I say, smirking.

He raises his eyebrows in shock.

"Right pocket," I inform them all. "Do you know what it says, Renesmee?" I ask her.

Renesmee blushes and looks away. "Yes," she says softly.

Edward immediately gives Jacob a look. "Have you crossed the line?" he asks through his teeth.

"No way!" cries Jacob, speaking for the first time. "I remember what you and I discussed on this…matter. And I promised that we wouldn't do anything like that for another two years…"

"Honey…Jacob's respectful, isn't he?" asked Bella.

Renesmee nodded at her mother. "Yes."

I can see Emmett give Rosalie a grin and a good-natured punch in the arm. I look over at Rosalie, and we roll our eyes at the same time. "This is serious, Emmett," I tell him, shaking my head.

"Did you go to ?" I ask then.

Edward and Bella turn to look at me.

"Not kidding," I tell them. "It's a real thing where you can custom-make articles of clothing."

Edward turns back to Jacob. "Yeah, he went there all right," he says, letting out an audible sigh.

I zero in on Renesmee then, and see that she sports matching lingerie like her Aunt Alice and that they are pink. She turns to stand protectively near Jacob so as Edward will not change his mind about hurting him. Jacob puts his arm around her waist, and my eyes permit me to see through Renesmee's blue skinny jeans. I gasp at the _I love Jacob_ printed across her butt as opposed to Jacob's right pocket, and instantly look away. "Sophie?" Bella asks, coming to stand next to me. "Are you all right? What did you see?" She has both of her arms placed on my shoulders and is staring intently at my face, full of concern. She shakes me, just to make sure that I am still with them. "Sophie?" she asks again.

I turn to look at her and flash a grin at her. "Only hours old, you know," I say softly to her. "I guess I'm still getting used to it all. You know…the being a vampire and the whole X-ray vision thing…"

Bella smiles at me. "Oh, of course," she says. "I'm only seven years old, in vampire terms," she explained. "I'll be eight later this year."

"You were a little younger than me when you…stopped aging, right?" I ask her in an inquisitive voice.

She nods. "Yes. Of course Alice insisted upon celebrating anyway, even though my aging had stopped seventy-two hours before that."

I smirk. "That Alice," I say. "Too bad she has my I.D. from when I was a human. She'll go nuts on my birthday, I'm sure."

"Probably," Bella replied, looking over at Edward, where he was standing across the room, looking worried in the direction of Jacob and Renesmee, who had slipped outside. "I'm sure that things will get better once we all find you a mate. Did you have a boyfriend?"

I shake my head. "No, I didn't."

Bella nods like she understands. "Edward's the only one I've ever been with, and vice versa. We're keeping it that way."

"Well, you two are married," I say, turning to see that Emmett is staring at me, arms crossed. "Do you want to see me kicking vampire butt?" I ask Bella, grinning at her.

"Any day," Bella replied, following me to where Emmett and I trooped out into the backyard.

I saw a massive boulder just in the beginning of the woods and dashed to retrieve it, surprised again at my strength. I heaped it onto another rock in the center of the yard—which resembled a table-like thing—as Edward, Esme, Carlisle, Alice, Rosalie, and Jasper trooped outside to watch. Bella stood by Edward, arms crossed, a grin on her face.

I gave Emmett a grin. "Now, I don't want you going easy on me," I warned him. "After all, I'm going to win anyway." I placed my elbow onto the boulder and extended my hand towards him.

Emmett grinned back at me and put his fleshy hand by my more slender one and reached out, grabbing it.

"One, two, three… Go!" Jasper said.

I didn't move my arm, or my hand, for that matter, as Emmett seemed to slam the whole of his weight into it. He'd already lost this battle before, so I was sure that he wasn't intending to lose again. I knew full well that I could easily let him win, but I wasn't about to do that, no sir. I gave him a grin and then allowed myself to put my back into it, literally, and began to push at his arm and wrist so as to improve my chances of winning. My strategy was give and take—I would make him think that I was going to win, and then backpedal at the last minute, to my advantage. Another thing to consider was the fact that Edward wouldn't be able to warn Emmett—not that he would, because that would be bad sportsmanship—about my tactics on how to beat him.

Finally, feeling that my victim was distracted enough, I put my full weight into my arm and managed to slam Emmett's hand into the boulder. Emmett pulled away from me as soon as it was over and glared at me. It was almost as if he couldn't believe he'd been bested a second time to a newborn, and a female at that. I grinned at him and screamed with laughter.

"Thank you, thank you," I said, then proceeded to break into song. "One way or another, I totally beat you! I beat you, beat you, beat you, beat you!" I cried, laughing harder. I saw them all staring at me, almost as if they hadn't seen a singing vampire before, and laughed at the thought. I turned away from them and charged for a large oak tree in the yard and climbed up it with swift, expert movements. I swung from the branches and managed to jump onto the balcony, leading to Carlisle's hospital room.

I was surprised at my agility, yet knew I would have to become more than a little used to it. It was a forever thing, being a vampire, and I would be physically nineteen forever—a teenager forever. Well, I supposed that you never truly grew out of teen angst, but this was an understatement. I would never grow out of it—physically—at this point.

Part of me wanted to know what it would be like to grow old. I supposed then that I could always ask Alice or something like that. I pictured myself with silvery white hair, in an armchair, a cat in my lap and a massive book in my hands, before a crackling fire. I had been labeled _cat lady_ when I was in high school, and not just because I'd constantly been covered with cat hair during school hours. Perhaps it was my love of cats that was my lot in life, and the fact that I'd never had a real boyfriend.

I proceeded to bite my lip—which was a frightfully human tendency—before I hastily stopped. My fang had pained my lip, and I reminded myself never to do such a thing again. Human… I turned at once to look over at Maddie, to find her still in the same position as before. I opened the door to the room that she was in and advanced inside slowly. She no longer smelled human, which was a drastic improvement.

I walked over and stood next to her, and took her hand into mine. Her skin, as it was when we were human, was a shade darker than mine, although it was now a dark alabaster instead of a peaches and cream as before. I sighed and took a long, hard look at her beautiful blonde hair that would never grow gray and to her perfect face—like that of an angel—which would never be marred by the wrinkles of old age. I remembered then that neither my hair, nor my face, would grow old, but it would be different for Maddie. She had had experiences as a human which I did not dare dream of having, and now it was different.

While she had been beautiful as a human—and would very well be as a vampire—I would just be beautiful as a vampire. Part of me wondered if Esme was simply being polite when she first encountered me. Motherly types could always exaggerate slightly when it came to appearance. Perhaps she was embellishing or had already made up her mind to be bias when she first met me. I didn't know.

"Maddie?" I said softly. "Maddie…please come back now. You're my best friend, and I can't go through this alone. Please…come back. Open your eyes and see everything…please…"

Her face proceeded to tense up then. She was experiencing the burning, just as I had, and was attempting to fight it. I knew that she was feeling a great amount of discomfort, yet I did not know what to do. I wasn't a doctor, that was for sure.

"Carlisle!" I cried, panicking.

At once, he was there, on Maddie's other side, looking down at her. He was nodding his head, and then he looked up at me. "She is experiencing the final stages of it now," he said calmly. "Don't worry. She will be with us very soon now, Sophie."

I nodded, although I was still worried. "Jasper…" I said softly.

Jasper was immediately at my side, and instantly sensed my agitation and concern for Maddie. He quickly influenced my mind otherwise.

I felt a tightening then on my hand and when I lowered my eyes, they were met with ruby ones. "Maddie?" I asked.

Maddie flew off the table almost as quickly as I had. She was staring at all of them—Carlisle, Jasper, Alice, Rosalie, Edward, Bella, Emmett, me—before backing away. She looked about as scared as I felt.

"Jasper," I whispered.

Jasper tensed up then, when suddenly Alice ran towards him and pushed him out of the way as a book came flying at him.

I gasped and turned to Maddie. "Maddie?" I asked.

She was standing in a corner, shaking, eyes wild, looking at every one of us, as if trying to figure it out.

"It's like _Carrie_ or Matilda Wormwood," I said quietly. "I think that Maddie has psychokinesis!" I cried.

"A prize for Aro," Edward said grimly, from where he stood with Bella. "It is truly amazing what you both can do…"

"I'm not some prize!" Maddie spat at us. "I'm a human girl, and—"

I shook my head, stopping her words.

"What does that mean?!" she demanded of me.

"Maddie…please, calm down…"

She shook her head. "I absolutely will not be calm! Not until I'm given a good reason as to why I should be so!"

I turned and looked at Jasper, who did his stuff. When my eyes returned to Maddie's, her body language was significantly more relaxed, although her eyes remained wild. "She doesn't know, does she?" I asked, knowing full well that the proper person would answer.

"No," Edward answered.

"You'd better tell her," said Carlisle.

"She can handle it," Bella continued.

"I've seen it," Alice finished.

I sigh and advance toward Maddie, completely on my guard. "Maddie…I want you to know that everything's going to be all right…"

"The thirst goes away," Emmett said.

I glared at him before I turned back to Maddie, who was clawing at her throat, pain in her eyes. "You're not human."

"Obviously," she said softly. "What the hell am I supposed to be?!"

"A…vampire," I replied. "Like the rest of us."


End file.
